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The Bloodthieves
This page belongs to Qibli77. Please do not edit this without permission. If you want to edit spelling, grammar, links, or categories, please leave a comment. Thank you! ---- Who are the new dragons? And where do they come from? They make their home on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Sand. Once a year, they find four dragonets, abandoned and alone, each from a different tribe, and bring them back to the others. They call themselves the Bloodthieves. 1= Chapter 1 "Lemonstone brought back quite a horde this year," the IceWing said. Her voice was scratchy and high, and it ricocheted off the high, rounded ceiling like a spear bouncing off a wall. "A giant, a dwarf, an orange MudWing, and the brightest-red RainWing I've ever seen. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" When she laughed, it pierced Tomato's ears. The thin SkyWing looked down apologetically. "Sorry about Scorcher. She doesn't mean to be unkind." Tomato nodded and glanced sideways. There were three other dragonets standing beside her. A large NightWing, very tall, and very wide, although still with the look of a dragonet— long legs too big for his body, and horns sharp and white instead of blunt and yellowed. In contrast, a tiny SeaWing, with a pale blue body that reached barely as high as Tomato's belly, but sporting long, cream-colored horns and wiry square glasses. And a female MudWing with more amber scales than brown, making her look as if she had mud-colored patches instead of amber ones. She looked down at her own body. Large and red, bright red. She couldn't explain why she chose this color for her scales, but the fiery color soothed her, somehow. She liked looking like a SkyWing, for some reason; it satisfied her to know that some dragons mistook her for one at first glance. The SkyWing was speaking again. Oops. Tomato quickly turned her gaze up to him again, trying her best to look attentive. Luckily, it turned out she hadn't missed much. He was telling them that they'd be going on a tour of the building soon. What even is this place anyway? All she'd seen of "the building" so far was this humongous, stone room shaped like a giant dome. Seats lined the edges, rising up farther and farther as they got closer to the walls, and four levels of platforms were stacked in the middle, each smaller than the next. A circle of windows ringed the top levels of the dome, and the highest point was a skylight. All of the glass was stained different pale colors, like pink, yellow, green, and blue. There was no exit she could see, but that didn't mean there wasn't one. In the RainWing village, dragons were masters of secrets, and, for that matter, secret exits (and entrances). Not that she'd ever seen the village up close. She couldn't even imagine what would happen if she did. Tomato was wrenched from her thoughts by the SkyWing's voice. "My name is Red Reed," he was saying. "Scorcher I've already told you. We'll be two of your guardians until your adulthood. And by the way, when will that be, for each of you?" He was asking them their age. "I'm five," Tomato said. The MudWing thrust her chest forward. "I'm five and a half. Which makes me older than you." Um, okay.....? Red Reed turned now to the NightWing. "Three," he muttered. Tomato took him to mean "I'm three years old." Then the SeaWing said, "Six." Hm. So he isn't as young as he looks. The MudWing glared at him, as if she was angry because he was older than she was (which made no sense, because how was a dragon supposed to control that?). The SeaWing stared back, neither smiling nor frowning. Just a long, hard stare. Red Reed didn't make a move to stop them, though Tomato was sure he'd noticed. "Dragonets, Scorcher will be leading the tour. Follow her please." The MudWing said, "Should we line up?" Tomato could have sworn she heard Red Reed sigh. "Do whatever you want," he said. But Tomato's sharp ears caught him muttering, "Line up! Do anything but that!" She grinned. It was good to know that her teachers disliked the MudWing's talk as well. ---- Tomato found a comfortable room waiting for her after the tour. It was a room suited for a RainWing, with a bed of forest leaves and bowls of fruit standing around the room. She sampled one of the pears. Pretty good. She collapsed onto the bed, munching her juicy pear. The tour had been interesting, revealing that the building was much bigger than Tomato had first assumed. She thought this might be some sort of school and home combined. There was one wing completely reserved for dormitories, which was where Tomato was right now. Then there was another, quite near the dormitories, that included the kitchens, laundry rooms, playrooms for dragonets, and other things you might find in one's home. The whole rest of the building, roughly shaped like a large rectangle, was the school. There were classrooms, yes, but not of the typical desk-and-chair kind. Small, walled-in courtyards furnished with comfortable chairs were to hold most of the learning going on at this place. There was also the giant room that Tomato had first seen, which Red Reed had informed them was where the guardians made announcements and also where performances were held. Tomato wondered what kind of performances this place had. Red Reed had instructed them to come down to that room (called an auditorium, he said) in twenty minutes. There was a clock, its frame crafted out of twisted branches, resting on Tomato's new desk. It had only been five minutes. After she finished the pear, Tomato set about unpacking her light sack of belongings. Her small telescope, her bottle of ink and scroll-paper, a box containing special torches made by RainWings that could be lit with venom—some gifted scientist had invented a mixture that reacted with the poison to create flame. Her prized possession stayed in the small brown-cloth pouch she wore, hidden underneath her wing. She lit one of the torches and stuck it in the holder on the wall. The orangey-yellow glow lit up her room well enough. She'd tried to open the shade for the window, but it was stuck. Fifteen minutes passed quickly. Tomato, having an impeccable sense of direction, found her way back to the auditorium easily, spotting Red Reed waiting on the top of the center platform. She was the first dragonet there; apparently the others didn't have quite the skill she had at retracing steps. The SeaWing and NightWing, the two male dragonets, arrived together, about five minutes afterwards. Ten more minutes ticked by and the MudWing had still not shown up. The three dragonets alternated glances at Red Reed, who was staring at the exit. (It had turned out to be a trapdoor hidden underneath the second-highest platform.) Finally, about thirty minutes after Red Reed had instructed them to join him, the SkyWing dived underneath the platform and exited the room, probably to look for the MudWing, Tomato guessed. She turned toward the other dragonets awkwardly. "Uh, I'm Tomato," she said. "Um, what are your names?" The SeaWing turned bright red and didn't answer her. The NightWing mumbled something inaudible. "Excuse me, what did you say?" Tomato asked, trying to sound polite. By the three moons, this must be the most awkward conversation in the history of Pyrrhia! "Comet," the NightWing muttered. "Cometpath." "Uh, nice to meet you," Tomato said. If she wasn't already bright red she would have blushed. She looked at the SeaWing. "Call me Copperscale," the SeaWing said. His face was still a bit pink. All three of them were relieved when Red Reed showed up again, this time with the MudWing in tow. "Dragonets," Red Reed said with obvious patience, "please excuse me. Now that Cenote has arrived, we can begin." Cenote. Tomato filed the name away in her brain. She had never been especially good at names, but she was sure she'd remember the insufferable MudWing's. "Lemonstone, your SandWing guardian, possesses an animus object that can reveal the presence of other animus objects," Red Reed said, without preamble. "It is powerful enough to realize that all four of you own animus objects. This meeting was called so that you may show the capabilities of your property." The four dragonets glanced around at each other. Tomato could tell that at least she, Copperscale, and Cometpath were slightly embarrassed about Red Reed revealing this. She couldn't read Cenote's face. "Who would like to go first?" Red Reed asked, staring at them. Cenote stepped forward. Turning her face away from them, she threw something into the air. Tomato's sharp eyes caught a glimpse of a white feather fluttering as it fell slowly to the ground. Suddenly, a dragon appeared in the auditorium. It looked exactly like Cenote. It roared, and then disappeared. "Illusions," Cenote said. She bent to pick up the thing. It was a white quill pen. Tomato came forward. "I—er—will need a volunteer. It—nothing bad will happen," she added hastily. "It's just—it only works on dragons, er, living things. I mean—" Copperscale raised his talon. "I'll do it." Silently thanking him for interrupting her flustered speech, Tomato reached into her wing pouch. She removed the tiny instrument case and tapped it twice with her talon. Everyone's eyes widened as it grew larger and large until it was about the length of Tomato's arm. She opened the case and removed her instrument and bow. Here goes. She began to play. It was a soft, gentle tune, a lullaby she'd heard RainWing parents sing to dragonets at night. With her talent for music, it hadn't been hard to reproduce it on her instrument. Now as she played it, she thought to Copperscale, Sleep. Everyone watched in awe as the SeaWing laid down on the floor of the auditorium and closed his eyes. Tomato kept playing for a few seconds and then stopped. The SeaWing instantly awoke. "That is some violin," Cenote said. Tomato glared at the MudWing. "It's a viola." "Sor''ry''," she said, but she clearly didn't mean it. Tomato sighed and turned away from Cenote. Cometpath was removing something from under his wing. It was a pale blue wooden boomerang with a white lengthwise stripe. The NightWing turned to Red Reed. "You care about that window?" He pointed at one of the rose-colored windows at the end of the oval-shaped room, probably the farthest from where they stood. The SkyWing glanced up at the ceiling of the auditorium. "Please destroy those windows." Stifling a laugh, Tomato turned to watch Cometpath as he threw the boomerang. It shot through the air like wind whistling through trees, slicing straight through the indicated window and hurtling back toward them. Cometpath caught it neatly and tucked it back under his wing. Tomato's eyes widened. So had the other dragonets', though Cenote did her best to hide it. Red Reed turned to Copperscale. The SeaWing sighed and pulled off his glasses. He turned away from them and directed the spectacles toward the floor. A bright white light shot out of them and burned a hole in the wood. The other dragonets' animus objects had been impressive, but Tomato couldn't believe the capabilities of Copperscale's. Laser-burning glasses? That was something almost too hard to believe. "Sorry about your floor," Copperscale said to Red Reed, still not facing them. The SkyWing laughed. "Oh, it's fine. No one cares about these floors. Anyway, so thank you for all sharing the powers of your objects. For the rest of the afternoon you can explore this building, but make sure not to bother any of the working dragons. Dinner tonight will be a buffet—as soon as you see the sun begins to set, that's when dinner's over. You can come down to eat at any time. So goodbye, and I hope you'll have a good time exploring!" Tomato crawled under the platform with the other dragonets to exit the auditorium. Explore this place for the rest of the afternoon? I'm in. |-|2= Chapter 2 Tomato stared at the dragon figurine. It was carved expertly out of stone, each scale sculpted to perfection. The eyes, carefully crafted using sapphires, gleamed as if alive. The tail was curled just as he held it. Why? ---- She remembered the day the queen, Queen Water Lily, introduced her to him. She'd beckoned Tomato from her dragonet games and brought forward a small, light purple-and-red violet dragonet with eyes as bright blue as the sky on a cloudless day. "This is the prince," the queen had said. ---- The next day, classes began. The first was an unusual sort of class. Scorcher, who was to be the dragonets' literature teacher, gave them a scroll text titled The Life-Givers and instructed them to read it "on their own time." They spent the rest of the class reading it. It was quite interesting, being about seven dragons that supposedly were the first of the seven tribes and "built" Pyrrhia using old magic. Each dragon made their own kingdom. "The SkyWing rose the mountains, the SeaWing sank the oceans; the MudWing dug the swamps, pulling cattails out of the ground with his talons... The RainWing poured life into the trees and brought to the forests birds and primates and snakes of all types and colors. The SandWing flattened the deserts, scorching the land with a whip of her tail, while the IceWing breathed his frost over the northern grounds, covering grass with tundra and dirt with snow... "They had been dedicated in the project, and each looked proudly over their kingdom, but in time they realized that their friend, the NightWing, who had stood quietly by admiring the continent as his companions shaped it, had not been left any territory, for in their majestic building of their kingdoms they had also forgotten to make a space for him. And when they remembered this they instantly apologized and begged forgiveness, and each offered the NightWing a slice of their kingdom, but he, being kind-hearted, thoughtful, and frugal, said he would just take the peninsula on the corner of the desert, and transform it into his kingdom. The others protested, for they saw how small and bleak this section of land was, and again pleaded with the NightWing to accept their territories. He again refused, and promised that he was perfectly happy with the peninsula..." Tomato was cut off by Lemonstone announcing that it was time for math class. She grumbled and rolled the scroll up, hoping to finish the story before dinnertime. She'd always been a slow reader, and her skills hadn't improved after she left the RainWing village and discontinued schooling. Math class flew by, for once in Tomato's life. Lemonstone, a female SandWing with shining pale yellow scales, was a very good teacher. She had ways of hiding math inside fun experiments and projects, effortlessly combining it with snippets of history that were actually intriguing. Afterwards, the dragonets had been given free time for two hours. Tomato decided to go back to her room and finish reading the story from literature class. Her path brought her past the desk where the violet-and-red dragon figurine stood. She glanced at it and had to stop. It reminded her so much of him. Thinking about it brought tears to her eyes. ---- She became good friends with the dragonet. He was kind and funny and was really and truly dedicated to his tribe. One day his sister, Princess Alyxia, would be queen. He always boasted of her, declaring she'd make a wonderful ruler. ---- Tomato shook herself from her thoughts and determinedly put one foot in front of the other. She would keep going. She would not let him keep breaking into her mind. She was a new dragon now, and that meant leaving the past behind. The other six dragons watched in astonishment as their friend flew over his kingdom. Dark, flat expanses of stone stretched into wide ravines; misshapen piles of pebbles peaked into craggy mountains. Gray cliffs overlooking the sea flattened to rocky beaches; the black, still ocean transformed to a light, playful spray that forever splashed the shore. And the buildings! In their haste to improve the nature of their territories, the other dragons hadn't given a thought to structures, but the NightWing clearly had. Sweeping towers adorned mighty palaces atop great mountain peaks while more humble homes dotted the wide caves and plunging valleys. A central square was spread beneath the great castle, near it a beautiful library and a comfortable-looking school. Play spaces for dragonets, deep tidal pools for exploring and relaxation, and long, high platforms perfect for viewing the night sky. His friends gazed openmouthed at the beautiful kingdom, which had just a moment ago been a desolate wasteland. They couldn't believe the NightWing's creative talent, and each praised his cleverness and asked if they could draw inspiration from it. The NightWing agreed, for what could be better flattery than someone wishing to do the same? Though the buildings were similar in idea, each had its own unique style: large, well-defended stone strongholds for the SandWing; beautiful palaces towering above the mountains for the SkyWing; graceful and innovative ice sculptures atop the tundra; quaint, comfortable treehouses suited the RainWing. The MudWing built strong, practical castles; the SeaWing designed elegant palaces adorned with all the gems of the sea. Though they looked proudly upon their own creations, each of the dragon tribes could not heap more compliments on any but that of the NightWing's. All of them agreed it was the best by far; the NightWing blushed at their comments, for he was also a modest dragon. He assured them that no better praise for his kingdom was just following his example, and leading their tribes to become unique in their own art, culture, and literature. He encouraged them to praise creativity and diversity among their dragons and to express that kindness, generosity, cleverness, and courage were to be treasured over skill and power. His friends agreed, seeing the wisdom of the NightWing's words, and vowed to uphold his tradition. And throughout their lives they did. But ultimately they died, and were replaced and replaced and replaced, eventually by not-so-intelligent individuals that tore the tribes apart, throwing away the value of these important traits. The task of our school is to bring back that better world. You have been chosen as one of those dragonets. We hope that you will help us in our mission. ---- Tomato rolled up the scroll and stared at it. This is the point of the school. This is the whole reason we were brought here. But what does this really mean? ---- Four dragonets circled Scorcher. Four dragonets held out scrolls. "What does this mean?" Scorcher started laughing uncontrollably. "Oh, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Sorry—ha-ha-ha-ha-HA! Sorry about that. I just had to get it out. Okay. So what does it mean?" A long silence. "Um," Tomato said hesitantly. The IceWing whirled to face her and she turned an even brighter red than before (if that was even possible). "Um, does this mean you stop bad guys?" She started laughing again, this time for much longer than before. Her breath was coming in gasps by the time she was finished. "Yes, this does mean that we 'stop bad guys,' Tomato. Basically." After that the other dragonets opened up. "Do you kill them?" "Do you deal with royals?" "What about former royals?" This last question came from Cenote, and Tomato could guess why. Scorcher's answer to each question was first a laugh, each longer than the next. Her answer was, "No, yes, and maybe. But you'll receive more information in time, I promise!" Ughhhh. Tomato hated when dragons said that. ---- It was the next morning, and as always, Tomato had to pass the sculpture of the beautiful RainWing on its desk. As always, she stopped. Looked at it. Stared at it. Why can't I just stop? Why can't I let him go? ---- And the truth was, she had even started to feel something for him. Something more than friendship. But slowly she began to see his jealousy and his ambition, his desire for the throne of the RainWings. His twisted way of pushing dragons into acceptance, and the sickening flirtations with female dragons. She tried to give him chances, second chances, third chances, even fourths. But he never, never took them. ---- Tomato reached into her wing pouch and tapped the tiny instrument case twice with her talon. It didn't matter who heard her tonight. She wasn't playing to control. The viola's magic burst from her, pouring her heart out into that dark desert night. She'd succeeded in pulling up her shade up that morning. So the moons, all three of them crescents, shone through the window and illuminated her, her and her viola. ---- And one day just after their fourth birthdays (he was one day older), he took her into the queen's treehouse and locked the door. "Marry me," he said. "You must marry me, or I will kill you. You'll be a princess, of the RainWings. We'll get rid of Alyxia. You'll become queen, and then I'll be king, and you'll do what I say." ---- She asked Red Reed about it. The little purple-and-red dragon figurine. "You can do whatever you want with it," he said. "It was a gift to us from Queen Water Lily. She carved it herself." Tomato suspected Red Reed didn't know who the carving was of. Queen Water Lily probably hadn't told him. She knew the wise queen hadn't been very proud of her son, having given him to his father, Variegation, to raise once the prince turned two. Water Lily had named Alyxia, the prince's sister and her only daughter, her heir, continuing the RainWings' tradition of being one of the only tribes to do so. (Everyone else had royal challenges.) Back to Red Reed. She also didn't see a reason for the SkyWing to have seen Water Lily's son—as far as she knew the five-year-old dragonet had never left the rainforest, like most RainWings their age, and she couldn't come up with a motivation for Red Reed to have traveled to the rainforest during his lifetime (although you never knew). Hopefully Scorcher and Lemonstone didn't know who the statue was either... or, better yet, Red Reed didn't—or "forgot" to—tell them. Usually she refrained from using her viola for selfish reasons, but... Tomato shook herself. She would just have to be careful and not let any of the other dragons notice it in her room. She was not using her viola. The next time she got a chance, Tomato carefully removed the little stone dragon from the top of the wooden desk and carried it to her room. It was placed on her own desk, where she would see it every day. And every day be reminded of him, and what he did... Tomato sighed. She would have to put up with her memories. Evidently it was impossible for her to forget him, so she'd just have to deal with it. |-|3= Chapter 3 "Dragonets, I have some news!" Lemonstone, the SandWing who was the school's unofficial news announcer, declared. "Today you will be going on your first mission! Red Reed and I will accompany you." Tomato's eyes widened. A mission? What did they do on a mission? "We've received word that a certain SandWing lord called Cereus has been abusing some SandWing dragonets and making them his slaves. We're going to travel to his home and have a little chat with him. Okay?" Three dragonets nodded. Tomato glanced at Copperscale. His face had gone just a bit pale. What's wrong with him? He doesn't seem the type of dragon to chicken out at this kind of mission... Tomato was still staring at the SeaWing when she heard Lemonstone say, "Class dismissed." Copperscale was out of there in a flash. Tomato followed him. ---- He stood at the back of the garden courtyard, head bowed. Tomato was sure she heard tears dropping with tiny plop''s into the still, silent pool he stared at. The beautiful space had been built by Scorcher, who, despite her rowdy personality, was a neat, accomplished gardener. Flowers covered the grass with space for stone walkways in between, while small trees stretched up to the open sky. Crawling up the walls were several variants of vines and ivy, and several little pools dotted the area, surrounded by clusters of reeds and marsh grasses. "I know you're here." The words bounced off the walls and were snatched up quickly by Tomato's sharp ears, despite the quietness with which they were uttered. She stood silent in response, waiting for him to say more. "Haven't you come to ask me why I ran off?" His question didn't have an accusatory air to it, unlike many dragons who would have said it that way. Tomato looked at the little SeaWing with a new respect. Even when he was right, and could be gloating, he was modest, and quiet, and kind. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "You don't have to be." "But I am," and now she came closer, stepped forward. He heard it, she could tell. "''I'm the one who should be sorry," he murmured, and her ears picked up the sound of more plop''s. "No," she said, "you surely have your reasons for doing so. If you don't want to go—" "But I ''do want to go!" he interrupted, with a startling volume that instantly quieted. "I do. But— I feel that if I go, Lemonstone will ask us—she'll ask us to bring—" He stopped, and put his talon to his face. It came away holding something that glistened in the morning sunlight. Oh. "I understand," she said. "I mean, I think I do. Am I right?" He nodded, just slightly, but almost as if he were reading her mind. Copperscale had that way about him. "I'm sorry," she said again, and took another step forward. He turned, and Tomato saw, unmistakably, the tear tracks on his face. "You'll leave them." His eyes opened slightly, in surprise. "You'll leave them, and Lemonstone won't be able to stop you. You can see without them, can't you?" she added, on a sudden whim. "Yes." She'd thought so. "You'll leave them," she repeated softly. "You'll leave them, and no one will stop you." ---- For some reason, the encounter with Copperscale made her wonder if the SeaWing dragonet had parents, or dragons who cared about him like parents did. She wondered if any of the other dragonets had parents. She had had one. In a manner of speaking. ---- "That's beautiful," a voice whispered. Tomato turned abruptly to see a pale blue dragon facing her. Her underbelly was an extremely light green, with bursts of light pink dotting her scales. She took a breath sharply. "Queen Water Lily." "Yes. And your name?" "I'm Tomato," she said, looking away. Her grip tightened on her viola, and she forced herself to loosen it. There was no sense in taking out her anxiety on her instrument. "That really was beautiful," the queen said. "I know a bit about string instruments, if you want me to teach you." "Really?" she asked, her eyes lighting up. "Really," Water Lily responded, with a bit of a laugh in her voice. From that day on, the queen became her unofficial guardian. She coached her and comforted her and taught her everything about the rainforest. Tomato had even come to consider her as a kind of mother. ---- Lemonstone and Red Reed called them back to the auditorium a bit before sunset. "We'll be traveling to a SandWing village on the west coast. The lord has taken over it, with the help of some henchdragons, and renamed it Cereus, after himself. You have twenty minutes to prepare your belongings—you don't need much, we'll only be staying one night—and then we'll be going. Come back here when you're done." The four dragonets nodded and went their separate ways. ---- The desert. Tomato had only really seen it once before, when she flew over it coming to the school. Lemonstone had pointed out the Scorpion Den in the distance one time. It was hot. And there was a lot of sand. That, she remembered, both from the scrolls at her old school and the trip here. What she hadn't remembered was quite how boring it was. To fly for ages and ages and seeing nothing but pale yellow sand below and blue sky above. Occasionally she'd glimpse cacti, and one time a bird flew past them so fast it almost knocked into Cometpath. Her fellow dragonets seemed to be doing okay, thought Cenote kept squirming around and complaining about the heat. Copperscale flew with a determination and a purpose that neither Cometpath nor Cenote seemed to notice, though, to be fair, Tomato had always been good at seeing these things. It was a useful talent in the rainforest—you never could tell at first glance if something was a tree branch or a snake. Red Reed and Lemonstone accompanied them. Lemonstone, of course, was in her element, swooping and flying all over the place. Tomato wondered if she flew out on the desert often. She must do it sometimes, given the school's location. She couldn't tell what Red Reed was thinking, though the SkyWing seemed to be smiling at something. Tomato tilted her head. Red Reed was looking at Lemonstone with... something more than a happy expression. Does Red Reed have a thing for Lemonstone? Tomato smiled slightly. They're perfect for each other. Now that she thought about it, she remembered lots of times when Red Reed asked to help Lemonstone with something, or gave her small gifts that he knew the SandWing would like. How did I miss it before? For the rest of the flight, Tomato watched Red Reed watch Lemonstone. It was quite amusing, actually, how at every oasis they stopped at Red Reed offered the SandWing water first, and how he always let her take the lead. The stars were out by the time they reached the village. Red Reed and Lemonstone rented them two rooms at a small inn by the edge of the town—one for the girls, Lemonstone, Tomato, and Cenote, and one for the boys, Red Reed, Copperscale, and Cometpath. Tomato wasn't super enthusiastic about sharing a room with the MudWing, but she knew that Cenote probably wouldn't cause much trouble with Lemonstone there. As she curled up in one of the room's nests, Cenote's complaints that it was too scratchy helped lull her to sleep. |-|4= 'Chapter 4' Everyone got up early in the morning. No one quite knew why; maybe Lemonstone did, from that slightly amused face she was making, but Tomato wasn't sure. They ate breakfast quickly; Tomato experienced her first meal of dried lizard. It wasn't bad, but rather hard, she thought, and tough. Salt went well with it. By the time the sun peeked over the horizon, they were up and flying. Not far, though, just to the center of the village, where Lord Cereus lived with his servants and slaves. They landed in a small yard in front of a huge sandstone manor, red like the sunset and carved with intricate designs. Dragons swooping over the sands, one with a crown on its head. Dragons bowing down to the crowned one, who held a scepter in its claw. Lemonstone walked up to the huge marble door, closely followed by Red Reed. The dragonets trailed after her as she reached up and lifted the knocker. Bang. Bang. The desert suddenly went silent, or so it seemed to Tomato. No birds sang, no lizards scurried about. A tiny little SandWing almost as white as snow opened the door wide. A large, golden-brown dragon stood in the doorway. "I," he thundered, "am Cereus. What are you doing on my property at this time of the morning?" Category:Content (Qibli77) Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete) Category:Fanfictions (Fanon) Category:Genre (Adventure) Category:Genre (Mystery) Category:Genre (Romance)